In February of 2017, my mom told me that my aunt had seen some story on a talk show about a stem cell trial in San Francisco and she told my mom that I should apply. Whenever you hear about stem cell treatments, most people, including myself, just think “spinal cord injuries,” which I have a traumatic brain injury, so how could it help me? Furthermore, I’m missing chunks of my brain that died in the wreck, which they don’t grow back, so this COULDN’T help me, right? Considering all that, I kind of just blew it off.

My aunt kept being persistent, so I finally decided to apply just to make her happy.

I go to apply and see that that the stem cells regenerate to rebuild the parts of the brain that I’m missing and heal the damage parts, so I start to get excited, but there had to be thousands of applicants, so no chance that I’d be selected, right?

I go two months without hearing anything and didn’t even think twice about it again.

Except then they replied to my email just asking questions and wanting more contact info, and then called my mom and requested to do an interview via webcam, which was weird because I told them that I can’t really talk (I sound like Chewbacca when I try), and then requested my medical records, brain scans, and everything else.

I begin to get excited but also try and keep myself in check because there were still a lot of steps, but I was optimistic because everything about this study indicated that I was PERFECT for it.

We request my records from University Hospital, where I was flown to initially because, being only 15, I didn’t have any ID on me, so they guessed my age at 18, and Children’s Hospital, where I was transferred to after I became stable enough to move (two weeks later).

Unfortunately, University had thrown out my medical records because they only keep them for so many years, but I was lucky in that my lawyers had kept all my medical records, so we were good there.

However, the wording was wrong in our request to Children’s Hospital and they just didn’t bother to even tell us that they weren’t going to send my records until we called them to find out what was taking so long.

Luckily, it all got taken care of.

In June, I finish working out at the gym and I'm sitting there waiting for them to finish my protein shake when my phone starts ringing. The caller ID says San Francisco, which is where the study is happening, but I figured they'd call my mom because they know I have troubles speaking, so I answer it expecting it to be some call trying to sell me car insurance or something.

I immediately recognize the voice as the young lady that interviewed me on webcam, and she starts telling me how they received my medical records but asked if she had my correct address because she was going to mail them back, so I get sad knowing that that means that I'm not selected.

But then she tells me how they looked over the records and decided that I'm PERFECT for what they're looking for, just like I've been saying!

They were trying to find doctors near me to evaluate me, but then I was guessing that the next step is just receiving the treatment!

This was still so unbelievable to me but it looked like this had a very real chance of happening!

We go a few weeks without hearing anything, but then they email us and tell us that they had just been closed because of the hurricane and that they were searching for doctors to evaluate me and to give me a physical.

Months go by without us hearing anything, which I know it’s a trial so everything has to be perfect, but it still made me nervous.

However, they finally call us in November and tell us that they found doctors to do the physical and evaluation in Columbus within two weeks and then to just give me the treatment up there, which would be in a month after my initial trip up there for the physical and evaluation.

I’m trying to keep my cool because it’s not even guaranteed that it will work, or how much if it did work, but I couldn’t help but be excited. I remember that my brother and I went up to Applebee’s one night to watch football and hang out, and, as we were sitting there, I said “it’s hard to believe that, in a month, I could be walking in here and we could be talking normal.

He just said, “I know…….. it’s unbelievable,” and it was one of those moments that you just knew he was emotional and had no words for the situation.

Throughout all of this, news stories in the area are doing stories on this, I’m posting it on Facebook, word just spread throughout the area because Northern Kentucky is just one big bubble, and I did things like post on this site, and thousands of people told me that they were thinking about me and praying.

We drive up to Columbus for the evaluation, MRI, and to be evaluated by physical and occupational therapists, which just seemed like technicalities because they already knew everything. It was all pretty pointless and all just seemed like technicalities, so we just had to wait to hear back from them for when they set-up the actual treatment, which should have happened a month later in December.

However, even though I thought it was a done deal, they call me back a week later and tell me that I was disqualified from the study. I was in shock, so I emailed the lady and found out that they disqualified me because I’m missing too much of my brain in too many different places, and they were looking to see damage in just one area of all the injuries so that they could accurately measure the changes that the stem cell treatments made.

I’m destroyed.

I’m bummed for about two weeks and just completely in shell shock, but then I decided to start looking in other countries, in mostly Europe but also in China, to find out if I could get the treatment done somewhere else. I discover that Germany is the most advanced in stem cell treatments, so I start applying to a lot of places over there, but I also apply to this place in China that says it’s the world’s largest stem cell distributor and they also have a center in Hollywood.

I only hear back from one place in Germany, which was a bummer because I figured, with a last name like Fritz, I’d get at least a 30% discount.

I replied to their reply with the information they requested, but then didn’t hear back again.

The stem cell center in China replies with a representative in California and requests all of my medical information and wanted to know a time when the doctor who will perform the actual treatment can call my mother or brother to get the wheelchair rolling.

I’m very excited about this because the trial was unproven and they were only trying to heal the parts that controlled walking, but this place in China should inject multiple areas to cure not only walking, but also speech, memory, and other mental abilities. I’m very excited about the mental abilities part because I was a genius before the wreck and my brain was nowhere near fully developed, so it will be interesting to see if I can be as smart as I would have been if I hadn’t suffered a traumatic brain injury at 15-years-old.

If it makes me able to run, I’m going to start training to run a marathon, and I ALWAYS accomplish what I set my mind to, so count on it!

I love my life as-is and never thought that this was even a possibility, so I’m ok if it doesn’t happen, but I’m very excited about this possibly being a reality and it would be unthinkable to be able to walk again normally, talk normally, think normally, have a great memory again, and just do so many other things normally.

We sent everything at the end of the last work week, so hopefully we’ll hear something this week and we can begin setting everything up.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PRAYERS! PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING AND I’LL KEEP EVERYONE UPDATED!

Brad, I've always admired you for your courage. To go through what you have, and still keep your chin up, maintaining a positive, optimistic attitude is an exceptional trait, as well as a testament to the quality of individual that you are. The fact that you always keep a good sense of humor and light hearted demeanor through it all, makes you even more of an endearing person.

I'm glad that you decided to make a single thread to keep us all up to date on your journey. Good luck with the treatments, and may the one above be looking over you.

(02-10-2018, 08:02 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Brad, I've always admired you for your courage.  To go through what you have, and still keep your chin up, maintaining a positive, optimistic attitude is an exceptional trait, as well as a testament to the quality of individual that you are.  The fact that you always keep a good sense of humor and light hearted demeanor through it all, makes you even more of an endearing person.

I'm glad that you decided to make a single thread to keep us all up to date on your journey.  Good luck with the treatments, and may the one above be looking over you.

Thank you very much!

Lots of people say things like that, but I never understood it much because it's jus life to me and everyone deals with their own problems and obstacles!

I'm also glad that I finally decided to follow yours and other people's advice and just make one thread about it all, and a BIG thanks to you and every other mod for making it a sticky thread!

It looks like working out all these years and never stopping trying to improve might end up paying off when I thought that I was always just fighting a battle that I couldn't win.

My life could be changing a lot VERY SOON!  And I'm also just excited because of how much easier it will make my family members' lives.

(02-10-2018, 08:17 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: Thank you very much!

Lots of people say things like that, but I never understood it much because it's jus life to me and everyone deals with their own problems and obstacles!

I'm also glad that I finally decided to follow yours and other people's advice and just make one thread about it all, and a BIG thanks to you and every other mod for making it a sticky thread!

It looks like working out all these years and never stopping trying to improve might end up paying off when I thought that I was always just fighting a battle that I couldn't win.

My life could be changing a lot VERY SOON!  And I'm also just excited because of how much easier it will make my family members' lives.

Are you still doing public speaking engagements?

(02-10-2018, 08:25 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Are you still doing public speaking engagements?

Yes sir!

I have five more this month and I'm going to start emailing more schools and hopefully schools in different areas to hopefully get more busy.

(02-10-2018, 08:33 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: Yes sir!

I have five more this month and I'm going to start emailing more schools and hopefully schools in different areas to hopefully get more busy.

Outstanding.  Do you ever speak at venues other than schools?  

(02-10-2018, 08:54 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Outstanding.  Do you ever speak at venues other than schools?  

Colleges, Churches, companies, retreats, conventions, camps, etc.  


Pretty much anywhere!

I'M STILL PRAYING.

I pray that this works for you Brad and I pray that it may help me as well if it does become a treatment in the future. I only have frontal lobe damage and have a problem retaining stuff and lost a lot of my memory like the births of my children which sucks. I don't even remember my wedding day or night, it really is terrible not having stories to tell.

(02-11-2018, 03:37 AM)SYLVIA Wrote: I'M STILL PRAYING.

I appreciate it more than I can ever tell you.

(02-11-2018, 03:25 PM)Nebuchadnezzar Wrote: I pray that this works for you Brad and I pray that it may help me as well if it does become a treatment in the future. I only have frontal lobe damage and have a problem retaining stuff and lost a lot of my memory like the births of my children which sucks. I don't even remember my wedding day or night, it really is terrible not having stories to tell.

I pray that it does work for me and that either my success in it becomes something that can be viewed at as historic and give hope to a lot of people (which might be a stretch, but how many other people that have benefited from stem cells were once declared brain dead and are currently missing so much of their brain that they should either be dead or be a vegetable?) or at least so I can tell of the success on here so that you might have hope and be motivated to pursue the opportunity in the future.

I'm missing a lot of memories from before the wreck, like being a star on the football field in the weeks leading up to it, which would be great to have back, and I doubt that they could come back since the parts that had those memories are gone, but I'm hoping that, by some miracle, they're still located in my brain somewhere and the parts that I'm missing were just to recall them.  Or that, since it's regenerating my brain, it will somehow return all the memories just the same as they were.

Like I said, it's unlikely, but I also thought it was impossible that I'd ever be able to possibly be anywhere near more normal, so who knows.

I never understood why the SF thing didn't pan out because it would seem to me that you would be a perfect subject BECAUSE you have so many different areas of the brain affected. Seems they would get so much more data, and possibly results, with injecting multiple parts of your brain to see which ones react in different ways. 

Hoping his works out for you!

(02-11-2018, 11:43 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: I never understood why the SF thing didn't pan out because it would seem to me that you would be a perfect subject BECAUSE you have so many different areas of the brain affected. Seems they would get so much more data, and possibly results, with injecting multiple parts of your brain to see which ones react in different ways. 

Hoping his works out for you!

You and me both, but apparently they were only looking for the improvements that it could do with walking.  

I agree I'd be perfect because they could see what improvements were accomplished in different areas, but I also see the point about it being a trial so they needed everyone to be similar.  It's stupid, but that's what they need to do to have it funded and to have concrete results that can be recorded.

I checked back and all of the emails I sent with my medical history, blood type, MRI, etc, were just being re-addressed to my email, so I sent it all again last night.

The guy said he’s giving it to the medical team that makes the decision, so please keep your fingers crossed.

He asked about my asthma, which I guess was in my medical history because I haven’t had any issues with that since grade school, so hopefully that was the only possible problem.

(02-13-2018, 10:25 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: I checked back and all of the emails I sent with my medical history, blood type, MRI, etc, were just being re-addressed to my email, so I sent it all again last night.

The guy said he’s giving it to the medical team that makes the decision, so please keep your fingers crossed.

He asked about my asthma, which I guess was in my medical history because I haven’t had any issues with that since grade school, so hopefully that was the only possible problem.

Fingers crossed Brad.  

(02-13-2018, 01:17 PM)Tiger Teeth Wrote: Fingers crossed Brad.  

Thank you!

It seriously means the world to me.

The guy in China forwarded my information on to the people who make the decisions, but then he also said this:

Quote:Please note: This is a very old traumatic brain injury (TBI); it is indeed possible that symptoms of this condition could improve markedly but it is vital that you understand that there is also a distinct possibility of little or no treatment efficacy due to the length of time since the original injury.

I'm not really sure what it being an old TBI really has to do with it. If it grows back the parts of the brain I'm missing, then they should work again. I understand that I may not be as smart or athletic as I once was, but he's making it sound like it won't work much at all.

He also asked about me having Asthma, which he must have seen in my medical records and I did as a kid, but it was never an issue from early childhood on.

(02-14-2018, 06:40 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: The guy in China forwarded my information on to the people who make the decisions, but then he also said this:


I'm not really sure what it being an old TBI really has to do with it.  If it grows back the parts of the brain I'm missing, then they should work again.  I understand that I may not be as smart or athletic as I once was, but he's making it sound like it won't work much at all.

He also asked about me having Asthma, which he must have seen in my medical records and I did as a kid, but it was never an issue from early childhood on.

He is just trying to make sure your expectations are in check. From my limited understanding, once you suffer damage to a part of your brain, it sort of "reroutes" everything to try to compensate. Well since it has been rerouted for a long time at this point, it might not use the news parts from the procedure as much as someone with a more recent brain injury. However, I'd still think it'd be valuable information to study someone with an older brain injury and could definitely still benefit you.

(02-14-2018, 06:40 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: The guy in China forwarded my information on to the people who make the decisions, but then he also said this:


I'm not really sure what it being an old TBI really has to do with it.  If it grows back the parts of the brain I'm missing, then they should work again.  I understand that I may not be as smart or athletic as I once was, but he's making it sound like it won't work much at all.

He also asked about me having Asthma, which he must have seen in my medical records and I did as a kid, but it was never an issue from early childhood on.

(02-20-2018, 04:57 AM)treee Wrote: He is just trying to make sure your expectations are in check. From my limited understanding, once you suffer damage to a part of your brain, it sort of "reroutes" everything to try to compensate. Well since it has been rerouted for a long time at this point, it might not use the news parts from the procedure as much as someone with a more recent brain injury. However, I'd still think it'd be valuable information to study someone with an older brain injury and could definitely still benefit you.

Treee makes a valid point and I agree they are probably just trying to make sure they honestly communicate what may or may not happen. Have they mentioned when you will know for sure? I know it's got to be stressful on you sitting in limbo?

(02-20-2018, 04:57 AM)treee Wrote: He is just trying to make sure your expectations are in check. From my limited understanding, once you suffer damage to a part of your brain, it sort of "reroutes" everything to try to compensate. Well since it has been rerouted for a long time at this point, it might not use the news parts from the procedure as much as someone with a more recent brain injury. However, I'd still think it'd be valuable information to study someone with an older brain injury and could definitely still benefit you.

I don't think they're worried about studying anything since they're a legit stem cell place and have it all down, as opposed to the trial that I had originally applied to be in where I was just a guinea pig.  

If you meant that you think it still would have been beneficial to them, I agree, but it was a controlled experiment, so everything had to be similar.

I agree about rerouting, but it's obviously not completely rerouted because then I'd be able to function normally, so hopefully the new parts take back over.  

Like I said, with how much I exercise my mind in thinking and how much I workout my body at the gym and even just get in-and-out of my chair multiple so much, I'm hoping my brain is still on the level that it was right after the wreck, meaning that the stem cells work just as well as they would have if we had gotten it done not long after the wreck.

Like I said, though, it still hasn't even set-in as a possibility, and I love my life as-is, so I'm still good, even if I don't get this.

(02-20-2018, 07:53 AM)HarleyDog Wrote: Treee makes a valid point and I agree they are probably just trying to make sure they honestly communicate what may or may not happen. Have they mentioned when you will know for sure? I know it's got to be stressful on you sitting in limbo?

Completely sucks sitting in limbo, but I actually haven't been thinking about it too much.......  just trying to present to schools, schedule more, workout, and living life like I always do.

He said they were in meetings discussing last week, which gives me hope and thinking maybe they're setting up a time, figuring out the best place for injection or the best type of stem cells, or just getting all the medical stuff in order because, if it was a no, they'd just say no.

Just received emails saying that the doctors accepted me to get the treatment!

They sent me all the registration forms and prices, along with places to stay and everything (it’s happening in Bangkok, Thailand, but still the company in China), and I just need to pick the days (I’ll be over there for 25 days)!

The injections come from umbilical cord-derived stem cells, so we’re good there.

I need to plan dates and all, but it’s happening!

Thank you for all the prayers and well-wishes!

Who-Dey!